Embarrassingly, an off-topic rant

I recall the IBM PS/2 models could be taken apart and some things like the hard disk replaced without using any tools, even a screwdriver. No doubt things can be made for easy disassembly and reassembly by machine. OTOH, one of the ultimate goals of robotics is to be able to do physical/mechanical things at least as well as people do them. Making things for automated maintenance would be a stop-gap measure while on the way to the ultimate goal.

Perhaps some company(ies) is doing something like this with an eye toward selling the technology at a profit. Also, I think nanotechnology and the general "transhumanism movement" tie in here.

And fold up into the wall, so it's not taking up so much floor space 16 hours a day.

I'm not that lazy, I can even go up and down stairs.

Get a Polar HRM watch to record your heart rate every five seconds for 21 hours at a time. You can tell a lot from that.

There's the novel "Oath of Fealthy" (Niven and Pournelle), which has a whole city in a huge cube building approximately a mile on a side.

I think it's fine here (I only see comp.robotics.misc in the newsgroups header), but it might also be good on rec.arts.sf.science.

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Yes. I take on many large (personal) projects by just chipping away at them. Because I'm not taking anybody's money for them, I can do them to the best of my abilities (which frankly isn't that good, but anyway...) and not worry about scheduling. Every so often I wonder how great everything would be if all of humanity would start taking that approach. Just think of the great things we could do if we had a 100yr+ timeline!

The problem is we don't have a shared vision. I've identified greed as one of the main impediments to achieving a shared vision. The greediest often work the hardest, but only on their own vision. I have no clue how to solve that problem.

However, we can have pockets, small societies of people with similar personalities that share a vision. All the stuff you suggested is stuff I've wished for, too. Just this evening I was telling my wife that it's not so far away that we'll have tiny helicopters with brushes on the rotors which sweep our ceilings. She said she wanted something to clean the walls. (My children have managed to put footprints on the walls above our heads. She's right about her priorities.) A wall cleaning robot can't be that far off, can it?

I don't want a bed that tilts me onto the floor. I want a crane that comes and picks me up, carries me to the shower, and erects me slowly under exactly the right temperature of water. I suppose the shower could come to me, but that will involve a new kind of bed.

I want my hedge trimmed to whatever shape I desire, and my flowers watered and fertilized exactly as they need to be, and weeds pulled before they have a chance to grow.

I want my doors and windows to close and open by reading my mind. My clothes should be handed to me in the morning, because I can't see to find matching socks, and I don't have fashion sense.

I don't want to pay for channels I'll never watch. I want one telephone that works everywhere, all of the time. I want one card in my wallet, for everything. I want 100% privacy, and 100% security. I want free access to all human knowledge. I don't want to ever have to sweat.

That fractal robot stuff seems to be an important approach to explore. I hope there are plenty of researches trying this stuff, and nano- and bio-tech, too, because eventually something's going to stick. In the meantime, the rest of us can get on with the work of building little machines to meet the sensible needs (like cleaning and maintenance), so we can figure out what really helps and what's overkill. Over the long term those needs will be met in more and more refined ways, and a new infrastructure will evolve. We just have to get on with it.

- Owen -

Hmmm. That seems nice, but far off.

I like it. But it can't weigh me, or count my steps/measure my distance.

Yes, I've read that. But can I have it filled with families that would rather watch "Donald in MathMagic Land", "Our Friend the Atom" and the "Social Guidance" films from the Prelinger Archive than WWF wrestling and "The Simpsons"?

They make those, they are for geriatrics, but I'm sure you can order yourself one.

Tell me about it. Walking 10 feet is such a waste of time. You could be sitting down eating pork rinds during those few precious seconds of excersize.

If your food is being delivered and cooked for you and you aren't taking out the trash, getting out of bed under your own power, or even walking around your own home, I can tell you how healthy you are in an instant.

Well, you should have started with alt.iamalazyass.wholivesinadreamworld. But I guess some of the things you discussed are relevant here.

So, back to my question, where is there a place that is assembling all this? SmartHome.com is all just bits and pieces, not even integrated for just one home, let alone for a whole community. I know there are lots of people who will assemble home automation solutions for your home, but what about builders and communities?

Is there someone at SmartHome that knows any place in the USA where this is all packaged together?

What about nitrogen filled robotic refrigirators? With microwaves attached and a conveyer belt to take the food from the microwave to the table?

What about self-cleaning bathrooms? With UV germicidal bulbs and ozone shock generators to get rid of smells?

What about underground pneumatic trash removal?

What about having walls that are NOT made like wasp's nests (i.e. wooden studs papered over with drywall), but instead are made of modular removable panels so that you have easy access to wiring and plumbing?

What about having RFID sensors in every doorframe so that you can instantly locate any object in your home?

What about motorized pocket doors?

Midlife Crisis wrote:

Not just that we don't have a shared vision, we don't share the RIGHT vision. It's not good enough if we all shared some stupid vision.

You can get electronic shower heads that will remember your favorite water temperature, but they don't talk to your computer, so you can't program them remotely.

If your bed adjoined your shower, it could tilt you into it, so you wouldn't need a crane.

A hedge trimmer on an articulated robot arm could do your hedges; a hydroponic or drip fed garden would eliminate the weeds.

NASA?

ROFL! A few billion dollars, noisy as hell, and falling to pieces even without gravity- and it can be in your backyard any time now. They appear to have learned absolutely nothing in over four decades. What a return on the investment.

Cheers!

Sir Charles W. Shults III, K. B. B. Xenotech Research

Be careful with this guy. The general consensus is that this website is a scam. Googling for "modular robotics" provides sources of infinitely more respectable and realistic implementations.

assembling all

integrated for

there are lots of

home, but what

USA where this is

microwaves attached

the table?

Im going to build my retirement cabin with a V shaped floor to a 12" diameter drain sump with a shredding tash pump in it... and water wash headers along the perimeter... then when I want to clean the place out I just turn on the flush valve and everything on the floor is washed into the shredder sump.

Nice hu? Then every year I will have Target send me new bedding, and a years supply of paper plates, cups and spoons No laundry. No dishes. Every two years I will call the trash guy to pick up my toaster oven, micro wave, and refrigerator... and Target can send out new ones. That will save on house cleaning.

With UV germicidal bulbs and ozone

(i.e. wooden

modular removable

you can instantly

room, with a

air-lock with a

Perhaps a

the arm can

automatically, and

maintenance,

come by and fix

and Gantt and

done as quickly

possible.

automatically

intervention. You

require regular

without frustrating

contributing 3D

Jetsons-like

communities are all

which have

Jetsons; it is easy

are the

bathtub or sink.

underground

system throughout

nitrogen filled

handling

floor in the

connected to the

healthy I am

could have built a

employees (see AGI

what's STK

directly?).

corrals for

terminals in

No way... "Bombardier" in Montreal, Quebec... and 100% subsidized by the Canadian Taxpayer... All the operating labels will be in French though... :-))

Thank you for that. I haven't laughed that hard in a while. Any you make a good point. Only the foolish would use (abuse?) modern technology to solve problems that don't exist.

Gives new meaning to the term "disposable society". Personally, I don't understand your aversion to simple maintenance. In any case, the amount of waste you suggest would be expensive.

You shouldn't comment on something you know nothing about. NASA's contributions to modern technology have been vast, and just because you can't package each innovation with a snappy name and sell them at Walmart doesn't make them any less important.

But for some of the more pedestrian examples see:

Ah yes, the 20 million dollar space pen, 14 years in development, over thirty examples that failed to work throughout the range of expected conditions. It writes in zero gravity, upside down, in extreme hot and cold but, carries less ink than a normal pen due to the space consumed by the pressure cylinder.

The Russians also tackled the problem, spent two days on it and decided to use a pencil.

Not to belittle the positive contributions.

Jj

No, you get me wrong. I have no objections to walking 10 feet. I am just fascinated by the coolness of having conveyer belts.

But you see, this gives me more time to spend on my treadmill or Nordic Track.

Do you really think this is a dream for a lazy ass? I just saw Bill Moyers tossing softballs to Lou Dobbs (one of the founders of Space.com), and it did get me a little bit alarmed. It would be bad to be displaced by outsourcing and then not have any money to pay for dreams like this. Maybe I should be doing something to ward off outsourcing instead of thinking about living like the Jetsons. But maybe the current crop of people in this country who waste their time watching CSI and the Laci Peterson trial deserve this. Maybe Michael Savage should be appointed to execute them all. And anyway, I will die someday, and it won't matter. So until I die, I think I would enjoy nitrogen filled robotic refrigerators, and - instead of a simple breaker box - a power distribution panel that monitors current down each circuit; maybe there is something like homeSCADA.

So, you're joking, but you are still exactly right. Why isn't every bathroom constructed that way? Why are you content to joke about this when each bathroom and kitchen could be SO MUCH BETTER if it had a drain in the middle of it?

Phil Scott wrote: